Hollywood’s most notorious rape scandal is being retold—but this time, the camera is turned on the victim. A new feature film, *The Girl*, will chronicle the 1977 rape of Samantha Geimer by director Roman Polanski, finally giving agency to the child whose trauma became a global media circus.

Based on Geimer’s 2013 memoir, the film promises to be a "deeply human act of reclamation." For decades, the narrative has been dominated by Polanski: the genius auteur, the fugitive, the exile. The girl he drugged and raped at Jack Nicholson’s house was often reduced to a footnote or a pawn in a legal chess game. Director Marina Ziolkowski aims to shatter that silence, casting 13-year-old newcomer Carolyn Kachen to play Geimer in a performance described as a "breakout."

Beyond the Headlines

The film will not just depict the assault; it will expose the brutal aftermath. It traces how Geimer and her mother were thrust into a "relentless media storm," hounded by paparazzi and stripped of privacy at the very moment they needed protection. It is a story of a justice system that failed a child and a media culture that commodified her pain.

Geimer herself has endorsed the project, stating, "I never imagined it could be transformed into something beautiful." Her involvement suggests that *The Girl* will avoid the sensationalism that has plagued this case for nearly 50 years. It focuses on the resilience of a mother and daughter fighting to preserve what remained of a stolen childhood.

• The Fugitive Director: Polanski, now in his 90s, remains a fugitive from US justice, having fled in 1978 before sentencing. He has continued to work in Europe despite multiple other accusations.
• The Cast: Alongside Kachen, Dree Hemingway and Gore Abrams will star as Geimer’s parents, grounding the story in the domestic reality of the tragedy.
• The Context: The film arrives as the industry continues to reckon with the #MeToo movement, re-examining the "art vs. artist" debate that has shielded figures like Polanski for too long.

A Final Reckoning?

While Polanski may never see the inside of a jail cell, *The Girl* offers a different kind of justice: the judgment of history. By centering the narrative on Samantha Geimer, the film strips away the myth of the "misunderstood genius" and reveals the predator underneath.

Filming begins in Los Angeles later this year. It is a poetic return to the scene of the crime, a cinematic exorcism of a ghost that has haunted Hollywood for half a century. For Samantha Geimer, it is the final word.